Cumulus convection and lateral boundary conditions in a limited area model

Three versions of Kuo's cumulus parameterization have been tested in a limited area model to investigate their comparative performances. Results show that the version of Anthes produces better forecasts than those produced by other versions. To identify a suitable scheme of lateral boundary conditions for the limited area model, impact of two time-invariant and two time-dependent boundary conditions have been examined. The forecasts suggest that the time-dependent tendency modification scheme, based on large-scale tendencies obtained from observed data, is a better boundary scheme for the model. Furthermore, the forecast produced with the revised version of the model incorporating improved versions of Kuo's scheme and lateral boundary conditions shows an overall improvement.